Vol. II. Issue. III September 2011 - The Criterion: An International ...

www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN 0976-8165
view of existence. To man, Frost believed that the universe is almost chaotic. The universe is a
confusion in which he could find meaningful ideas by facing difficulties. It is shaped in to a
poem by Robert Frost. What is man’s problem? According to his poetry man’s problems lie in
obtaining the right relationship with the confusion of his surroundings in the universe. Man must
attain a middle ground of his confusion.
Robert Frost maintained with Wordsworth and Emerson that certain general speech
patterns were to be found specially in rural areas. He adopted the many of the principles
expressed in Wordsworth’s ‘ Preface to Lyrical ballads’ in diction’. Like Wordsworth he chose
incidents and situations from common life .he described them in a language used by men. He
preferred people in low and rustic life, because they speak in a plain language. According to
Robert Frost, the manner of rural life is easily comprehended. The people in ‘ North of Boston’
he himself, included in his role of rural thinker. He included their way of talking and their
natural speech rhythms.
For Robert Frost, poetry was life. He made perpetual efforts to relate poetry to life and
life to poetry. He refers to poetry as beginning in delight and ending in wisdom. He has in his
mind the balance of sensibility and substance ,of emotion and thought. According to him, a poem
must not be merely a trick , but a performance. He mixed his conception of poetry the sense of
emotion and the mind. He wrote-
“ Enthusiasm passed through an idea” is what poetry must become if it
aspires to the height”
Robert Frost remarked that modern poets forget that poetry must include, the mind as
includes the emotions. They only emphasized on emotions of the speaker in their poetry. They
did not include mind in their poetry on this basis that mind is dangerous. To include the mind in
poetry is not good for poetry because it dominates emotions of human being. So mind must not
be included. But Robert Frost thinks that mind must be included in poetry. Poetry displays the
mixture of mind and emotions. In Robert Frost’s poetry mind is kept with fact and emotion with
fancy. Fact and fancy constitute to major place in the world of Robert Frost’s poetry. He
considers that Fact deals with practical life and fancy deals with imagination. In the mind of
Robert Frost, there is a delightful interplay of fact and fancy.
Robert Frost’s poems express his personal thought and feeling. In one of his poems
‘Home Burial’ from the volume ‘North of Boston’ the lines from the husband’s first speech
display the combination of mind and emotion. Wife is emotionally hurt by the death of her child,
but the husband is practical in his life.
“ The little graveyard where my people are!
So small the window frames the whole of it….
But I understand; it is not the stones
But the child’s mound”
It does not mean that husband is not hurt by the death of his child but his emotion do not
find place over his mind. He felt towards his child like his wife but he accepted the fact of life
that if there is life in the universe, there will also be the cold hands of death in the universe.
In his another poem ‘Birches’ from the volume ‘Mountain Interval’ there is a mingling of
fact and fancy throughout the poem. A mingling of wisdom and fancy makes it a delightful poem
which consists of a combination of mind and feeling. In this poem the speaker’s emotion compel
him to escape from the difficulties of the world and the universe. He will have to face many
difficulties in his life. The poet would like to climb a birch tree, which is directed towards
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Vol. II. Issue. III 152 September 2011